List of banned video games

This is a list of video games that had been censored or banned by governments of various states in the world. Governments have been criticized for banning games for many reasons, including, but not limited to; bans that increase piracy, inhibit business opportunities, violate rights,[1][2][3] and are widely available for purchase or download.[4] This list is not exhaustive in total, nor is it exhaustive for any country mentioned in particular.

China

A very large number of video games are banned in the People's Republic of China. Games that contain drugs, sexual themes, blood, depictions of organized crime or the defaming of the Chinese government are almost always banned from sale. Because of the large size of the Chinese video game market, many studios will edit the content of their games to conform to the government's standards.

Cuba

No video games have ever been banned in Cuba, but few games were sold in that country until 2007 when restrictions were eased. In 2010, the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops gained much controversy as there is a mission where the player attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, only to end up killing a double.[24]

Germany

A game can be banned in Germany if it has been confiscated by court order because it violates a section of the Strafgesetzbuch (criminal code). Private possession (and thus playing it) and acquisition (such as downloading a demo from the Internet) is still legal, but any dissemination is not. The seller would break the law if a sale took place, not the buyer. On December 10, 2002, however, one German court (Oberlandesgericht Hamm) decided that a single sale of a single copy does not qualify as dissemination.[26] Unlike indexing by the BPjM, which restricts the sale of all content-equal versions, the versions that are confiscated are enumerated in the court order. Being put on the index by the BPjM or, since April 1, 2003, being refused a rating by the USK does not equal a ban. Rather, it imposes strict trade restrictions on the title. While only very few games have been confiscated, the list of indexed games is very long.[27]

In December 2006, Bavaria and Lower Saxony proposed legislation, to be presented to the national parliament, that would make even playing games that feature "cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters" an offence punishable with fines or jail time of up to 12 months.[28][29][30]

§ 86a outlaws the use of symbols of unconstitutional organisations, § 130 Volksverhetzung (agitation of the people), and § 131 instructions for crimes. In the official lists, these three sections are always bundled, so any action game that contains swastika flags and/or any depiction of Adolf Hitler) is listed alongside racist propaganda pieces.

§ 131 outlaws representation of excessive violence in media "which describe cruel or otherwise inhuman acts of violence against human beings in a manner which expresses a glorification or rendering harmless of such acts of violence or which represents the cruel or inhuman aspects of the event in a manner which injures human dignity."[31]

§ 130 and § 131 make it to a criminal offence to do following with corresponding scriptures:

distributing / selling

issuing in public, demonstrating or otherwise making available

leaving it to a person under the age of 18

producing, buying, delivering, storing, offering, announcing, praising, importing or exporting to use them within the meaning of the letters 1 to 3.

This means, that the import or purchase and the possession for personal use are still legal for persons over 18 years.

A "Beschlagnahmung" (ban) is enforced for a minimum of ten years, after which a request for review may be submitted.[35] The bans associated with the following titles date back more than ten years, making them eligible for review:

Indonesia

Banned because an organization called "Darah and Doa" was considered as a threat by the President of Indonesia.[citation needed]

In addition, the WWE Smackdown series was shortly banned by Indonesian local government circa 2006-2007, due to multiple reports of younger children and teenagers attempting to physically replicate the gameplay, usually causing severe injury or even death in few casualties.[citation needed]

Iran

Banned due to the intense battles of the fictional US invasion on Tehran, as well as on the intense battle on the Grand Bazaar. Already prior to the ban, many retail stores were removing copies of the said game from their shelves.[39]

Republic of Ireland

Because IFCO almost never rates video games, and leaves decisions to PEGI and BBFC, there have not been a lot of games banned. Only one game so far, Manhunt 2, has passed IFCO's rating of 18. But the ban was later lifted.

Italy

In 2007, following the decision of the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Minister of Communications Paolo Gentiloni publicly expressed the desire to block the distribution of Manhunt 2 in Italy, due to the gratuitous violence and excessive cruelty of the video game, but the censorship was never put into practice.[41]

Lebanon

Malaysia

Malaysia tends to ban extreme impact violence, depictions of cruelty, all content not considered anti-Muslim, and sexual content. In August 2008, Head of a Malaysian consumer rights organization, Muhammad Idris, called for a ban of Grand Theft Auto series and other similarly violent games such as Manhunt series.[45][46] In February 1810, one week after Dante's Inferno released, the game was banned by Jabatan Agama Islam [JAIS] in Malaysia for cruelty, hellish visions, sexuality and content that was against Sharia.[citation needed]

New Zealand

In New Zealand, games are classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification. If they are dubbed "objectionable" in all cases, then they are considered banned. In this case, the game in question is not only illegal to sell, but illegal to own, possess, or import. Games are typically banned and classified as "objectionable" when they contain extreme violence, depictions of cruelty, animal cruelty, sexual content involving children, or graphic depictions of sexual content., including sexual fetishes that are "offensive & abhorrent" (depictions of urination, bestiality, necrophilia, urophilia, coprophilia, and/or incest.)

Pakistan

Philippines

In 1981, a presidential decree issued by Ferdinand Marcos outlawed the use and distribution[52] of all video game consoles, arcade games and pinball machines, deeming them as a "destructive social enemy"[53] and "to the detriment of the public interest".[54][55] Despite the law being technically in effect following the EDSA Revolution, it has since been disregarded and unenforced.

Saudi Arabia

It should be noted that most of these games can be found in some stores (often at a substantial price) due to the government's lack of enforcing the banning of these games. Many major stores, however, will not stock the following banned titles.

Singapore

Singapore rarely bans games in the past with a few exceptions. With the implementation of age rating by the Media Development Authority of Singapore, most games are widely available for purchase only to their respective age group. However, all games containing nudity are still automatically banned, the most known ban is Mass Effect.

Banned because of excessive high impact violence.[59] The ban was met with uproar as the local gaming community and retailers scrambled to start petitions to save the game. The government decided to lift the ban after a week as the game had been released for more than a year and the ban will impact the local LAN gaming and retail market.[60]

Like Brazil, the Game Rating Board requires that all video games be rated by the organization. Unrated titles are de facto banned from being sold in the country, and Web sites selling them can be blocked.

Thailand

Thailand will typically ban any games with high impact violence, and sexual content, such as many eroge from Japan, with the same reasons as banning any pornographic films.

Additionally, all video game titles of Grand Theft Auto series have been banned in Thailand completely since August 2008[66] because of an 18-year-old Thai player influenced by Grand Theft Auto who killed a taxi driver.[67]

United Arab Emirates

In the United Arab Emirates, a branch of the government called the National Media Council (NMC) works to control the media and entertainment industry in the country, and they have the authority to issue bans on any specific media products, including video games, to comply with the country's legal and cultural values. The NMC do not usually explicitly state their actual consensus for any kind of issued ban on a product, so official reasons behind their bans remain unclear. However, bans issued by the NMC apply only to the sale of those products through local outlets; they do not make private ownership illegal. This acts as a loophole, allowing some retailers to continue selling banned video games via cyberspace (i.e. online shops), and the NMC does not strictly enforce their bans any further.[citation needed] There are certain exceptions, notably for Spec Ops: The Line (see below). Some banned games may be available and sold in the nation's grey market.

The following (incomplete list of) titles are banned from mainstream physical retail circulations.

Banned likely due to contradicting with customs and traditions.[69]Its sequel, which feature similar themes, was released without issues however, and even had a localised print release for the PlayStation 3 version. Ban did not extend to the digital version of the game however.

Banned likely due to high impact violence, cruelty and sexual content. For reasons unknown, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had since been made available via Steam ever since the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V was launched, which itself is openly available on Steam from the debut.

Despite being initially marketed for Middle Eastern distribution under the title Injustice: The Mighty Among Us, the game failed to surpass the NMC's censors for a period of time,[77] and was banned likely for the case package and on-disc software title itself being identical to its European release, with the term "God" retained (official reason not given however). The game had been demoed at various events in the U.A.E. without incident for many months prior to the official release date. The ban on the title had since been lifted though.[77] The expanded Ultimate Edition was released on schedule and distributed regularly.

Banned likely due to the game's fictional depiction of the UAE's real-life city of Dubai in a state of ravage and destruction. Unlike other banned video games, the NMC had extended their focus for this title going far as to issue the TRA UAE to block the game's official website[84] and subsequently stop the title's distribution throughout the rest of the GCC, as well as Jordan, and Lebanon.[85] Local retailers, such as Geekay Games, are not even able to sell the game via their online shops to UAE residents.[86] Digital distribution platform Steam does not offer the game in the region, although that is likely the publisher's decision. It is currently unknown whether the game would be available via PSN's official Middle Eastern hub.

Initially banned likely due to sexual themes, nudity, excessive violence, and for uses of drugs and alcohol. The game's local distributor had confirmed that the title will be available in the U.A.E. and the rest of the region by August 15, 2014 for some platforms (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360) and without any in-game alterations.[87] Only copies of the game with localised Middle East covers were allowed, subsequently banning imported copies for other platforms. For example, the Xbox One version was not released until sometime after the console itself had its official launch in September 2014. The PC version remains unavailable, consequently blocking access to the downloadable version on Steam. Due to the fact Ubisoft cannot officially distribute their games on Nintendo consoles specifically for the Middle East (for various meta reasons), the Wii U version remains unavailable. (Ubisoft games on Nintendo consoles are generally available as imported products in the region.)

United Kingdom

Games in the UK usually only receive a ban when they contain real sex scenes or extreme and gratuitous violence. PEGI age ratings are compulsory and are backed by legislation, taking effect on 30 July 2012.[88] It is illegal to sell, buy or rent (but legal to import) a game that has not been classified by an approved age rating organisation in the UK. This only applies to games stored on physical media, not to downloadable media.[89]

Was threatened with being refused certification in its uncut form. Was subsequently altered to replace pedestrians with zombies.[90] The restriction was later lifted, and a patch was released to restore the original human content.

The uncut version was the only game to be refused classification by the BBFC (therefore banned), due to excessive violence and cruelty.[91] After this, a modified version was made and submitted for certification - this was initially refused classification as well, but was allowed to be sold after an appeal (despite a successful challenge to this ruling).

Despite the game already being the edited American release, it was threatened with being refused classification due to objectionable content: The interrogation scenes were deemed very high in impact and could cause harm to the public. The publishers made edits at the request of the BBFC to further mask these scenes,[92] and this final version received an 18 certificate.

United States

In 2005, due to the revelation that one model was 17 at the time of production, The Guy Game was "banned" due to existing pornography laws. It should be noted that this was due to broad laws unrelated to video gaming, and the ban would have applied to any form of media with similar content. Overall, the United States has not banned any games due to laws that specifically pertain to video games.[93]

Venezuela

In November 2009, the Government of Venezuela announced that it would ban all video games in which the objective was to shoot people. The ban was due to widespread violence in the country.

The bill was later published in the public journal of that country on December 3[94] and gone into effect 3 months later,[95] March 3, 2010, making Venezuela the first country to completely ban violent videogames in the world and making their manufacturing, distribution, selling, rental, exhibition and use illegal. Even though the proponents were not from the Venezuelan Government's political party, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), President Hugo Chávez supported the ban,[96] claiming there are some Internet games featuring him so players can "kill them"; and even calling video games consoles, including Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation, "poison" and values of the capitalism, which he considers "the road to hell".

According to reports of the Venezuelan National Guard, more than 13,000 objects, including violent video games, were massively destroyed to the date in the states of Lara[97] and Portuguesa.[98]

The ban is criticized by gamers and experts alike for its ambiguity and lack of clarity on its penalties, aside from being too harsh and indoctrinating a negative point of view.[99] On the other hand, Sony expressed their hopes for the government to make changes for the law for good.[100]